Items that are delivered to or from a distribution facility, such as a warehouse or fulfillment center, are frequently prepared for delivery in one or more containers (e.g., boxes, envelopes, tubes and the like). Once the items have been packaged in the containers along with an appropriate amount and type of dunnage, and the containers are sealed with one or more adhesive tapes or other like materials, information regarding the containers, e.g., information identifying the contents of the containers, or an intended destination for an order with which the containers are associated, may be affixed or applied to one or more external surfaces thereof, and the containers may be delivered to the intended destination.
Typically, information is affixed or applied to one or more surfaces of a container using a label. Such labels frequently have nominal sizes and may identify an origin (or a sender) of the item, an intended destination (or a recipient) for the item, as well as a number or other identifier that associates the container with one or more orders. The information may be expressed in one or more sets of text or numbers, as well as bar codes or other optically recognizable symbols.
Containers in which items are delivered frequently include one or more seams, creases, edges, folds or other uneven surfaces or surface discontinuities defined by differences in elevations of one or more aspects of such surfaces, such as the flaps or seals of an envelope, or the seam of a folded and assembled box. Where a label applied to a container spans across such surfaces, the label may be subject to wearing and tearing due to changes or variations in the positions or alignment of the surfaces. Moreover, because the preparation, packaging and delivering of containers frequently causes such containers to come into contact with one or more rough surfaces, labels may be subjected to one or more friction-based forces between a time when the labels are affixed or applied to such containers, and a time when such containers arrive at an intended destination. Such changes or variations in the positions or alignments of surfaces, or such friction-based forces, may ultimately render portions of the information expressed on such labels (e.g., text, numbers or identifiers such as bar codes) unreadable by the human eye or one or more automated machines. The inability to interpret the information included on such labels may cause one or more delays in the delivery process, and may increase the cost of delivering the items to their intended destination.